Sports

Unexpected furor in IND vs AUS match: How two Australians gave a big shock to Modi?

By alagu, 27 November, 2020
India, Australia, Gautam Adani, Narendra Modi

When the cricket fans in India were watching the first ODI match between India and Australia that have been taking place in Sydney on Friday, some of the Australians had unfolded an unanticipated drama as they used the prospect of the match to expand their demand of urging the Indian government not to grant the loan for the Adani Group. 

In what has become an unprecedented development, two Australians had broken the barriers, one hour after the start of the match, ran to the center of the ground when Indian and Australian players were playing their first match of the three ODI matches. Two of them had caught the attention across and beyond the borders, causing a disruption to the game. 

The two Australians had carried the placards with the slogans of demanding not to grant the loan for the Indian-based Adani Group for its controversial and strongly opposed coal project in Australia. The placards read, "State Bank of India (both in English in Hindi) No $1BN Adani loan". The two of them had stirred furor by raising the placards from the center of the pitch. 

Following the development, the security officials had surrounded the two Australians and removed them from the ground following which, the game was resumed. However, the visuals of the protest were rampantly spread on social media. Though the security officials had removed two of them from the ground, the protest didn't come to an end as over 50 people had gathered outside the Sydney stadium and staged protests against the Adani Group. 

The protest has become the first of its kind in recent times and the protest against the Indian company has come from the Australians. The protesters were seen wearing T-shirts that read "#StopAdani" on the front and "Stop Coal, Stop Adani, Take Action" on the back. According to reports, Australians have been protesting against the Adani Group for a long time to stop its coal project in Queensland, one of the provinces in Australia, by citing that the project could adversely impact the environment. 

The protesters had demanded the State Bank of India to refrain from providing the bank loan to the Adani Group's mining project in Queensland, Australia. Gautam Adani, the Chief of Adani Group and a close friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had acquired the coal mine in Galilee Basin in 2010 and his mine was expected to produce 8-10 million tonnes of thermal coal every year to generate electricity. 

Adani's mine was opposed by the activists and environmentalists as his coal mine could affect the Great Barrier Reef. In 2014, the SBI had approved a $1 billion loan for the Carmichael project after Modi's trip to Australia. The critics said that the loan was approved by the Indian money lender because Adani is a friend and supporter of Modi. Months later, the loan was repealed after there were protests against the group and the Indian government.  

However, Adani had got consent from Queensland's Department of Environment and Science for his coal project and the Adani group had said that it has been in talks with the SBI for the bank loan to start its production in 2021. As the company nears the production, many Australians have been voicing against Adani and his company and urging the SBI not to provide a loan and what Sydney cricket stadium witnessed on Friday amid the India-Australia match was one of the protests against the Adani group and as the protest in the cricket stadium had got larger attention across and beyond the borders, the reports say, it has given a big shock to Modi than the cricket fans. 

 

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